I just wanted to update this as there has been no new activity on the blog for a couple weeks. As you already know, I packed up my entire life and moved it across country to Norman, Oklahoma. I arrived in Oklahoma on my birthday, the 28th.
After signing the lease and getting the keys to my apartment, my parents and I got my stuff moved in within a couple hours. Caruso, my cat, was also very happy the long journey back to Oklahoma (for him) was over.
I started work last Monday at my new job. The company I am working for is Weather Decision Technologies, based in Norman. They are on the campus of OU (Oklahoma University) across the street from the National Weather Center which houses the Storm Prediction Center, National Severe Storms Lab, National Weather Service Norman office, and the Warning Decision Training Branch along with the OU School of Meteorology. This is my view when I walk in each morning -
My cube is nearby a large window which is on the side of the building that faces the National Weather Center along with the OUN Sounding site, the OU/NWC Doppler, and the Mesonet & ASOS stations which are right outside. Definitely the center of all things weather.
I am working in the IT department, which is what I truly like to do for work. It's the best of all worlds for me - Living in Norman, OK for a weather company doing what I am good at - IT work.
A new video is up today from yesterday near Battle Creek, MI. Heavy thunderstorms training along the warm frontal boundary near I-94 caused significant flooding near the new Firekeepers Casino.
Date: 20100718
Miles Driven: 255 Miles
States Visited: MI
SPC Outlooks
Chase Partner(s): Solo
Chasers Encountered: L.B. LaForce, Bob Hartig, Kurt Hulst, Nick Nolte
Weather Conditions Experienced:
 Chase Map
Sunday July 18th looked like a decent chase day in Lower Michigan. I wasn't super impressed with the setup. It had quite a bit of CAPE, as depicted by the NAM and the RUC. The NAM was showing upwards of 3800 on the 00Z run, however scaled back during the 12Z run, showing still around 2750-3000 in a Lansing to Grand Rapids and southwest line.
The RUC was showing anywhere from 3000-3500 in Southwest MI, with a nice tongue of 2000 CAPE going north to about M-55. North of M-55 the CAPE values were lower, but the shear started going up and helicities near the warm front. Due to the terrible chase terrain and lower instability values, I decided not to play up north along the warm front.
I got breakfast and then decided to load up the truck as it appeared the line that was currently making it's way across Wisconsin was approaching the lake shore. It had mostly been confined up towards Green Bay but had been expanding southward rapidly. I still wasn't sure this was the main show for the day, but decided that I should head out just in case and could always catch later convection if it fired.
My power steering was completely gone, so it was a long day which ended in sore arms.
Date Submitted: Sunday, July 18, 2010 22:45
Date: 20100715
Miles Driven: 300 Miles
States Visited: MI
SPC Outlooks
Chase Partner(s): Solo
Chasers Encountered:
Weather Conditions Experienced:
 Chase Map
I had been eyeing the potential for Severe Weather for a couple days, but had mostly expected a severe squall line which is oh so typical in Michigan. That's pretty much what we got.
The lack of overall winds (30 knots at 500mb, 30 at 850) worried me. I figured we wouldn't see very widespread damage, just enough to shake the trees loose of a few branches. Overall, that is what we had.
The sun came out early in the day, and destabilized lower Michigan adequately. We had 2500J/KG of SBCAPE present per mesoanalysis when things started firing around 2pm. I had a 2pm meeting at work, then headed out around 2:45, heading down 496 then north on US127.
The first cell that looked the best at the time was near Alma in Gratiot county. That was the one I targeted and stayed behind most of the day.
I took 127 up to M-46 and took that east, following behind the storm. As I got to the storm near St. Louis, it pretty much had died right off, with a VIL down to 19. Lightning started becoming more intense and the scans following showed a decent pulse up, but I got stuck behind a tractor going 20 mph for a number of miles and was unable to get by them.
I followed M46 to Hemlock where I started finding tree trash and small branches down (2 inches in diameter and less). I eventually headed north to Tittabawassee Rd, encountering a number of bigger branches down including a branch about 6" in diameter which was down blocking part of the road.
Date Submitted: Friday, July 16, 2010 10:00
Date: 20100524
Miles Driven: 1,080 Miles
States Visited: SD
SPC Outlooks
Chase Partner(s): Adam Lucio, Danny Neal
Chasers Encountered:
Weather Conditions Experienced:
 Chase Map
May 24th was largely a bust in my book, and really shouldn't have been. I woke up around 9am that morning and started looking at things, and wanted to either take US-12 west into North Dakota or at least Highway 20 to Bison, SD.
Adam and Danny had stayed up a bit too late partying the night before, and didn't get up till a little bit later. I told Adam that Bison should be our target, but it took another hour or two before we finally hit the road.
We headed down US12 west to the Bowdle area, and headed back somewhat the way we came up the other day. I wanted to head west on US212 but Danny and Adam ended up wanting to go south towards Pierre and intercept the stuff coming out of Nebraska.
The stuff to our east near Faith was dropping tornadoes and while it would have been questionable that we could have ever caught it, if we had left earlier we could have easily caught it and the other storms that produced that morning.
We ended up south of Murdo and intercepted the cells coming out of Nebraska as they were completely falling apart.
We gave up early and headed east and stopped at Hardee's in Mitchell, SD where we were greeted with Andy Gabrielson's video of the amazing tornadoes we missed.
What a long ride back to Chicago. Adam was mad enough that we drove all night and got back to Chicago around 6-7am. Adam dropped me off at Chicago Midway so I could get my truck out of the parking garage ($89 for parking!) and then head to his house where we could sleep most of the day.
Date Submitted: Saturday, July 10, 2010 17:17
Date: 20100604
Miles Driven: 338 Miles
States Visited: MI
SPC Outlooks
Chase Partner(s): Aric Cylkowski
Chasers Encountered: Bob Hartig, Kurt Hulst
Weather Conditions Experienced:
 Chase Map
This day started out as quite a marginal severe weather day, and after the morning cloud cover I had almost written it completely off. I got a lot of tasks done during the day, including mowing the lawn and getting caught up on bills and changing the oil in my truck.
Aric Cylkowski and I decided eventually to head out towards the southeast corner of Michigan as that is where the HRRR model was breaking out precip including Supercells. We headed down US127 towards Jackson.
A cell had fired over Lake Michigan and was heading east inland across the southern tier of counties, so we headed west on I-94 towards Coldwater where we were going to go west to intercept.
The cell died off over Berrien and Cass counties, so we just sat in Coldwater waiting. More storms went up west of Allegan county, but we hesitated for a bit.
We eventually decided to head back north on I-69 to Charlotte where we took M50 up towards the cells as they tracked out of Kent and Barry Counties into Eaton County.
Detroit/Pontiac (DTX) issued a Tornado Warning for Shiawassee County (for what reason, I don't know) but it managed to get our hopes up for what we were seeing on radar to our north.
While the storm looked very crappy on radar, it did have a very well defined classic wall cloud with rotation when we got to it, so we both decided to stick to it.
Date Submitted: Saturday, July 10, 2010 16:17
Well as the title of this blog says, I am making a move to the heart of Tornado Alley - Norman, Oklahoma. I have accepted a job with a weather data company based in Norman, OK, and will be doing IT SysAdmin work with them. It's an absolutely incredible opportunity that I'd have been a fool to pass up, and I will now be living where I want to live.
As my tweets have mentioned, I am currently at Steve Miller OK's house in Moore, OK. I came down for a couple days to get my apartment situation worked out and start getting things ready for my full move, which should be on or around July 26-28.
I have to admit, it will be strange leaving my current employer, Liquid Web, after almost 5 years. I loved my job to death, and it's probably one of the main reasons I stuck around Michigan as long as I did. The desire to live in another state a lot closer to my passion is what fueled this move, however. Now I'm going to be at ground zero for storm chasing.
I start my new job on August 2nd, and it seems like I will fit right into the group of people I will be working with. I know there is going to be a lot of cultural changes that I will have to get used to living down here. I am looking forward to it, however!
If any of you are passing through the Oklahoma City area, feel free to give me a shout!
The forecast details are still right on target from yesterday, with a significant severe weather day on tap for Michigan. The Storm Prediction Center has kept the Moderate Risk in their 06Z outlook today, with a 10% risk of Tornadoes in Michigan.
The current weather map shows a surface low centered over Southern Minnesota with the warm front to the west of Michigan. The morning MCS/crapvection that was forecast to be ongoing is currently crossing from Eastern Iowa into Western Illinois at 5am EDT. More crapvection stretches from Milwaukee west to about LaCrosse, WI. All of this activity is moving to the ENE and should be in Michigan mid morning and out of here by late morning/early afternoon.
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